Full Frontal

Full Frontal (2002), Steven Soderbergh's playful Hollywood experiment, is available to watch online on iFILM. It tracks a single day among people loosely tied to the movie business, all drifting toward one friend's birthday party that evening.

Lin pines for a man who barely notices her. A self-absorbed actor, Gus (David Duchovny), more or less plays himself. Carl's marriage is quietly falling apart while his wife falls for someone else. The threads cross and recross, and Soderbergh keeps winking at the audience — a film inside the film, glossy 35mm cutting against grainy handheld digital, the wall between role and real life sliding around. Julia Roberts, Catherine Keener and David Hyde Pierce pass through, and director David Fincher even turns up as himself.

Shot fast and almost guerrilla-style right after the Oscar-winning Erin Brockovich, it's Soderbergh chasing freedom over polish. The result is loose and deliberately messy — an acquired taste that rewards viewers who enjoy formal games and a look at the dream factory from the inside. Stream Full Frontal (2002) online on iFILM.